Jack Lorimer's holidays

Front matter

Class Book Copyright N°

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

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Preface

In “ Jack Lorimer’s Champions,” published a year ago, I told the story of a High School Baseball League and the championship won by Millvale High. I promised, then, to complete the account of that summer’s doings and tell how the Millvale boys camped out, and the promise is redeemed in this book.

“ Captain Jack Lorimer,” the first volume in the Lorimer Series, pictured Millvale’s ups and downs in football, hockey, and various indoor sports. “ Jack Lorimer’s Champions,” the second volume, was devoted chiefly to baseball, but dealt also with rowing, swimming, and field and track events. In the present story, Lorimer and his friends not only go camping, but they box, wheel, motor, figure in a horse-race, play jokes, plan strange inventions, and systematically seek for health — which itself is happiness.

Probably many a reader will feel a special, sympathetic interest in Charles Pratt and Will Van Dusen, who came to Captain Jack that they

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PREFACE might be guided in strength-building habits. I trust their progress will encourage other boys to lead the wholesome life of athletes, and — since, in a story, it is hardly possible to go into details — I hope that at some future time, in a different kind of book, I may be able to take up the whole subject of exercise and training, and treat it as fully as Captain Jack’s admirers seem to wish.

In the next volume in this series I shall tell the story of “ Jack Lorimer’s Senior Year.” Meanwhile I tender acknowledgments to the Boston Sunday Herald , in which originally appeared the stories that have been rewritten to form the Lorimer books; and I add the hope that the young people who have stood by me so stanchly and generously will find pleasure and profit in this latest work of their friend

Winn Standish.

Boston, June 1 , 1908,

Contents

CHAPTER

I. In Camp with a Restless Wildcat

II. The Wanderings of Royal Burr

Chapter I In Camp With A Restless Wildcat

It was the mascot and the “ hassistant mascot ” — Royal Burr, wildcat, and January Jones, fat boy — that first suggested to Captain Jack Lorimer the scheme of a camping party; and though the athletes of Mill vale High have teased January about it until he hates to be reminded of his little excursion, the story ought to be told, by way of introduction.

The summer vacation was just beginning. Most of Lorimer’s closest friends, Terry McGrady, Tom Bell, Phil Kavanagh, Ned Harriott and others had graduated, leaving Captain Jack a year behind them, that year representing the time he had taken from his books to help his father in certain business perplexities. Lorimer would be a senior in his turn, when school reopened; but the boys he liked best would no longer be there, and so he wanted to make the most of this vacation before they separated, some to enter college, others to go into business.

And they had a good time in those summer months. Some of the things they did have been told in “ Jack Lorimer’s Champions,” the preceding volume of this series. But before they had begun to do things, while, in spite of the holidays, everybody was feeling blue at the thought of the pleasant companionship which was so soon to end, — then January Jones, who felt as blue as anybody, stirred up a mild sensation, and gave Captain Jack his idea.

Readers will remember the mascot of the Mill vale Athletic Club, a Canada lynx or wildcat, “ Royal Burr ” by name. Nor is there any need to introduce the “ hassistant mascot,” January Jones, — age eleven, height four feet seven inches, weight 150 pounds, — who, when his father died, came over from London “to be a Hamerican.” He lived with his mother’s cousin, Mr. O’Brien, the janitor of Mill vale High; he felt as if he belonged to the school and the gym; and when the older fellows found things dull, things were dull for January.

His most depressing days came in early July, when the Fourth was past and there was no other excitement in sight. On one of the worst, as he dawdled along Main Street, looking in every window like a country cousin, Fate fixed his eye on

THE YOUNG WOMAN WAS OLD MARLOW’S DAUGHTER.”

IN CAMP WITH A WILDCAT 3 a newsdealer’s display, and he saw a small red pamphlet bearing the title, “ Camping in the Woods.” January stared at it awhile, then he went in and bought it, and lastly he went over and sat down on the City Hall steps and read the whole thing through.

The pamphlet pretended to tell how a boy or a party of boys could go into the woods, build a tent of boughs and saplings, and have a fine time without spending much money. It was written by some one who knew very little about the subject. But January knew less; he did not realize that the author’s instructions were neither clear nor practical, and he thought he had found a treasure.

“ Hi’ll do it, blow me! ” January muttered, as he read. “ While Hi’m stuck on me hinvention, Hi might as well be on the loose, what? Hi’ll take Royal hout, too. ’E’ll be pleased to get some fresh hair.”

Whose “ hair ” the wildcat was liable to get, January didn’t stop to think. But of course the reader understands that what the fat boy intended for Royal was a little outing and some wholesome exercise.

There were things to be attended to, though, beforehand. The first thing was to buy a stout collar and a light, strong chain; and the next was to hunt up Mr. Seth Lanard, an old citizen who stood by the athletes through thick and thin, and proffer a request — which that generous friend acceded to at once.

“ Build a tent in my woods? ” he repeated. “ Certain, certain, build a dozen if ye want to, January, — only be careful, if ye make any fires, that ye don’t let ’em spread.”

Mr. Lanard was busy, and the fat boy didn’t explain the scheme, and, in fact, felt rather relieved that no questions were asked. First he wanted to build his tent and set up housekeeping. To-morrow he would astonish people by showing them what he had done and telling them that he and Royal had spent the night in the open.

Breaking through the underbrush at a point where it was more dense than common, a shield that promised privacy, January got into Lanard’s Woods. He had a small hatchet and a coil of clothes-line, and, when he found three saplings that grew conveniently near, he began operations by bending down the tops and tying them together.

Across the tops he laid hemlock boughs. Around three sides of the space thus covered he drove stakes that he found in a small clearing just beyond his hut, interweaving the stakes with more boughs. More boughs still gave him a floor and bed in one — and then he stood off and surveyed his handiwork with honest pride.

“ Hi’ll go and get me tea,” he said. “ Then Hi’ll feed Royal Burr. But Hi won’t try to bring

IN CAMP WITH A WILDCAT 5

’im hover till it’s darker, when there’s nothing houtdoors to stir ’im hup, ye know.”

Yawning hard, and feeling as if he would much rather stay where he was, the fat boy set out for home. But on second thought, since to carry his provisions and manage the wildcat might be almost too much of an undertaking, he decided not to go home for supper. He got a little luncheon at a shop, bought his supplies and a small dark lantern, and made a second trip to his hut to leave the articles he expected to use in the morning.

To say that January was tired, by the time he got back to the gym, is to put it mildly. He ached all over, and his eyes were trying hard to shut. He had to keep awake and pretend to be lively, not to run the risk of exposing his secret. But it was hard work, harder than building the hut, and he was thankful that it was a warm night, so that by 9 o’clock or thereabouts all the fellows had drifted away. Then January got out his collar and chain and went over to the wildcat’s cage.

‘‘Come hon, hold sport!” he said. ‘‘We’re going for a walk, ye know! ’Old hup, now! Lift your ’ead and we’ll ’ave you fixed in a jiff! ”

The thing was simpler than any one could have anticipated. Royal caught the gleam of the bosses on the collar, and they held his attention until the collar was passed around his neck and clasped at the top. He seemed a little nervous, then, but he contented himself with making one or two dabs at it; and he was so curious about what might be going to happen that he neglected to scratch or snarl; he only waited.

“ Hout you come, hold son! ” January said gaily. “ Captain Jack says Hi didn’t hought to take you hinto the street, so we’ll go hacross the fields, what? ” At the words he gave a gentle tug at the chain, and Royal, nothing loth, stretched his lithe frame and came out of the cage.

Never once in a thousand attempts could January do what he did that night, for, in front or behind him or at his side, the wildcat padded along like a lamb. It was partly the strangeness of it, perhaps, for months had passed since Royal had felt the ground under his paws; partly the solitude and silence, for they met neither man nor beast; partly the animal’s confidence in his leader; partly the restraint of the collar and chain.

Anyway, there was no protest on the wildcat’s part. He even followed tamely through that hedge of underbrush, which pricked his sides and made him sneeze. Bursting with exultation, January led him up to the hut and slipped the ring on the end of his chain over the head of the stake.

“ ’Ow’s this, hold sport? ” the fat boy chuckled.

IN CAMP WITH A WILDCAT 7

“ Ain’t this prime, what? Ho, no, Hi guess yes! Go to bed now, Royal, and when you wake hup you’ll ’ave an happetite! ”

Almost as if the wildcat understood, he curled up on his bed of boughs. Retreating his own length into the scant shelter of his roof, January himself lay down. He had nothing but the boughs under him, and nothing over him, but he could have slept to-night on the soft side of a plank, and —

He slept.

The gleam of dawn was in the sky when he awoke — with a start, if not a jump. The strangeness of the place was heavy upon him. For a second he did not understand. But somehow he felt that something had happened.

He sat up and gazed around in a bewildered way. The first thing he saw was the paper that had held Royal Burr’s breakfast — four pounds of chuck beef. The paper was empty. Evidently Royal had eaten his breakfast.

He remembered, then, and glanced toward the stake over which he had slipped the ring at the end of the wildcat’s chain.

The stake had been uprooted and lay flat on the ground. The chain was no longer attached to it. The wildcat was gone!

Chapter II The Wanderings Of Royal Burr

At just about the time when January, suddenly awakened, was staring at the place where the wildcat had been, and wondering what had become of him, Jabez Ross, an old farmer whose place was nearest Lanard’s Woods on the north side, was roused with as sharp a shock, by a dream that his barn had been struck by lightning.

It was very real — so real that, though he could hear the horses neighing and stamping, the cattle bellowing and the poultry cackling furiously, he thought for a minute or two that this was all part of the dream. It needed that his wife should nudge him three or four times, and ask what he was thinking of, and wdiy he didn’t go to see what ailed the stock, before he hurried on his trousers and started for the barn.

Never was there a more terrific din than that which he heard as he drew near. Seldom had Jabez been more frightened. He was tempted to run the other way and let his property take its chances. But, if he did that, his wife would be “ after him,” and, nerved by the dread of her, 8 u

JABEZ PICKED UP A STICK FOR A WEAPON.

V

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THE WANDERINGS OF BURR 9

Jabez picked up a stick for a weapon, and cautiously threw open the barn door.

As he did so something sprang out at him — something with blazing eyes that threatened death and destruction. It landed on his shoulder. For an instant it clung there, the terrible eyes glaring into his, the long talons piercing his flesh like so many hot needles. Then with a scream that was almost as loud as the old man’s yell of fear and pain, it bounded away.

But the backward kick of the hind legs, with which the creature launched itself, came so strongly and so suddenly that it flung old Jabez on his face; and, when he managed to get on his feet again, the thing that had assaulted him was out of sight.

“ By glory, that must ’a’ been a lion or a tiger! ” he muttered.

That it was something fierce and muscular, he was sure when he looked inside, for three of his hens had had their heads snapped off and the flank of one of the cows showed the rake of heavy claws. But the mischief, whatever it was, was done, and the farmer closed the barn and went back to the house, resolved to set hunters on the “ varmint’s ” trail.

One, however, was already busy. That was January.

When Royal Burr literally “ pulled up stakes ” and started to seek his fortune, he left clues behind, thanks to that dragging chain which probably prevented him taking to the trees. There were not many places where the fat boy was puzzled to find the marks it made, and they led him pretty straight to Ross’s bam, to an open window over the stalls.

January listened a minute, and heaved a sigh of relief when he heard no sounds of battle and bloodshed. Then he scouted toward the house. Old Jabez was just coming out, looking ferocious enough to bite off nails. January lifted his cap.

“ Good morning, Mr. Ross,” he said. “ Hanything ’appened, what? ”

“ Been some kind of varmint in my bam, if ye call that anything! ” the old man answered sourly. “ Killed three hens and scratched a cow and give me a good rakin’, consam his pictur’! ” “ Where is ’e? Did you catch ’im, what? ” cried January, eagerly.

“ Ketch him! Ketch a streak o’ lightnin’ with claws onto it! I was mighty willin’ to see him go! But I kind o’ cal’late a bullet ’ll ketch him, if I can find some fellers with guns! ”

“Ho, no, Mr. Ross; ho, no!” was January’s earnest rejoinder. “ That’s Royal Burr, ye know, hour tame wildcat. Hi’ll pay for hall the ’arm ’e does. Hand Hi say, Mr. Ross, if ’e comes back again, Hi wish you’d ’old hon to ’im, ye know! ” January added as he turned to pick up the trail. “ Tame wildcat, hey? I be blessed if I want

THE WANDERINGS OF BURR 11 to meet any wild wildcats, then! ” the old man growled. “ As for holdin’ on to him, if he comes back when I’m outdoors here, I cal’late you’ll see me shin that ’ere lightnin’ rod! ”

“ Which way did ’e go, what? ”

“ I can’t tell ye. He set me goin’ t’other way.”

But here again, after some little search, the fat boy found the tracks. The ring on the end of the wildcat’s chain was a fine rubbish-collector, and every time Royal leaped forward he must have taken quite a heap of odds and ends along with him. They blazed a path that almost anybody might have followed.

Possibly the animal stopped to rest, once in awhile, for after half an hour January found he was getting “ warm.” The tracks crossed a road; and in the road a hatless man who was covered with dust and had a lump on his forehead was jumping up and down and using language that made the fat boy’s ears tingle.

“ ’Elio! What’s hup? ” he asked.

Never mind what the man answered. The gist of it was that he was dozing on his wagon, driving to market, when Royal Burr came out of the bushes by the roadside. Then the horse bolted, pitched him, the driver, out, and was probably by this time half-way to Boston.

Here was a case where the fat boy thought it would be safer not to admit any responsibility until after the victim cooled down. But he sympathized, and managed to find out his name and residence, meaning to adjust damages later on. Then January plunged into the underbrush on the other side of the road — and within five minutes found Royal Burr.

That ring on the end of his chain had been the ruin of Royal. Somehow as it dragged along it had slipped over the end of a stout, half-buried root, and far enough up the root so that the beast could not tear it loose. He had done some energetic scratching to free himself, and he was snarling and clawing furiously when January broke through the bushes. But when he saw the fat boy he looked, January thought, as if he was ashamed and sorry.

“ Trouble enough, hold sport! ” January said. “You didn’t hought to leave your friends that away and go to killing ’ens and scaring ’osses, what? Hi’m ashamed of you, Royal, blow me! ”

The wildcat made another dab at the root, as if to say that that was the thing to blame, and then he lay down, blinking at January.

“ Hi don’t know ’ow to get you back to the gym,’’ January went on, shaking his head at the beast. “ Too far to walk you hin the daytime, ye know. Ho, yus, the bloomink camp’s guv hup, Royal! ’’ he added sorrowfully. “ Hif you won’t stay, Hi can’t ’ave you, ye know!

“ Hi’m going for to take a turn of rope haround

THE WANDERINGS OF BURR 13 your collar and that tree,” he said, suiting the action to the word. “ Then Hi’m going for to telephone the gym, and ’ave your cage sent hup. Hand you want to keep still and be’ave yourself while Hi’m away, you ’ear me? ”

Whether he understood or not, the wildcat made no protest; and when January returned from a trip to the nearest telephone, and again an hour later, when the cage arrived on an express wagon, in charge of Captain Jack and Lou Mains, he was still lamblike. Once more, when January ordered him into the cage, Royal went as meekly as if he thought he belonged there.

But January felt none of the pride in that, that he had a right to feel. He was too disappointed over the failure of his enterprise. Indeed, he took it so much to heart that Lorimer wouldn’t scold him for the dangerous risk he had run and to which he had exposed others.

“ Never mind, January. You haven’t wasted your time,” Captain Jack said soothingly. “ Lou and I were saying, as we came along, that we might not have thought of camping out, if you hadn’t started the scheme. As it is, we’ll get up a party, by and by, and of course we’ll take you.”

January looked down at the wildcat and wagged a finger at him reproachfully.

“You ’ear that, Royal Burr? ” he said. “You might ’ave gone too, hif you’d be’aved yourself! ”

But, though he didn’t say him nay, Captain Jack, for one, had serious doubts about it.

As he looked forward to the summer camp, in these first moments of plan-making, he saw a limited number of intimate friends going away to the woods and, for a fortnight or more, escaping every wearisome responsibility. Yet he was soon to realize that — even though the wildcat should be left behind ! — the size of the party would outrun his estimate, and it would include, besides his friends, some, strangers almost, to whom he would be bound to render sympathy and constant aid.

Chapter III When Willie And Charles Volunteered

“ Your name is Lorimer? Something of an athlete, I understand? Well, I’ve been having you looked up, Lorimer, and I’ve about decided that I’ll have you act as a kind of companion and adviser to my Willie.”

Courtney Van Dusen had spoken — a short, stout, grizzled man of sixty, probably the richest man in Millvale, and the kind of person who thinks his money gives him the right to “ boss ” everybody. Though he was in business in Boston, he had recently bought a splendid estate in the suburban city, and people said he had set up a magnificent establishment, with a train of servants and all that. But Captain Jack, who never paid much attention to gossip, had no idea of the make-up of the family, and didn’t know “ Willie ” from a stick of wood.

“ Willie is my son, the only child,” Van Dusen went on, pompously. “ Naturally he has been petted by everybody, and luxuries of all kinds have been at his command from the moment of his birth. In one sense that is proper, for it is desirable that he should realize his position and 15 opportunities. Possibly, however, we have not always weighed the effect upon his health, as we should have done. I find him now showing weak, nervous and irritable tendencies which my physician advises are best to be corrected by physical training. So I have decided to let you take him in hand.”

“ With or without my own consent? ” Lorimer suggested. His manner was calm and smiling, but Van Dusen had rasped him, and he was bound the millionaire should realize that this was a matter it took two to settle.

“ Why, why, I propose to pay you for any service you may render! ” the other sputtered.

“ Provided I agree to render any service, I shall not hesitate to accept payment,” was Lorimer’s cool rejoinder. “ But it would have to be clearly understood that, if I undertook the task you mention, I should have complete control of your son’s food, his sleeping hours, and his amusements, as well as his exercise; and unless the lad seemed to me worth working over, I wouldn’t bother with him at any price! ”

Van Dusen gasped. Probably not for years had he been talked to so plainly. But as a business man he knew that nobody but a fool would accept responsibility unless he could have authority to back it; so, instead of making the furious reply that for a moment was on the tip of his tongue, he actually consented to argue.

WILLIE VOLUNTEERED 17

“ I could probably agree to any reasonable condition — it being understood, of course, that Willie should not associate to any great extent with social inferiors,” he said. But at this Lorimer laughed once more.

“ It’s not easy to train effectively unless a fellow has the stimulus of measuring himself with other fellows who are working along the same line,” he answered. “ Your boy would meet intelligent boys whose habits are right and whose talk is clean. Do you think they’d do him any harm? ”

Van Dusen couldn’t say yes to that, and he wouldn’t say no; but before he decided on his answer, Captain Jack added calmly:

“ Of course they might, though, if your boy set up a claim that he was a good deal better than they, because his father has more money. If he kept harping on that string, I’d be tempted to give him a larruping myself! ”

The millionaire’s face reddened and he looked ready to burst. But Lorimer had called on his invitation and must have the privileges of a guest; and doubtless deep down in his heart Van Dusen knew he was right. There was silence for a minute or two.

“ In the event that you took charge of my boy’s training, how would you begin? ” Van Dusen asked, at length.

“ Probably by taking him on a camping trip and letting him rough it in the woods for awhile.’ *

41 That’s the stuff! I’m going, papa! ”

The interruption was as much of a surprise to Van Dusen as it was to Lorimer. Yet perhaps the man should have been prepared for it, for it was caused by his son, the subject of their discussion, — a white, scrawny, undersized lad of eleven or twelve years. That was the first impression Captain Jack received as the boy dashed aside the portieres and stood before them, fairly quivering with excitement.

“ I heard what you said,” he cried to Lorimer. 44 I won’t be whipped, you just remember, but I want to go camping out, real old Indian way! Fix it, papa! ”

Van Dusen looked at him helplessly.

M You might miss the people you have here to wait on you,” he suggested.

“ I don’t care! I want to play Indian! ”

44 Who do you think you’d play with? Mr. Lorimer would be too busy attending to things to have much time for play.”

Again Jack laughed.

44 If your son went with me, Mr. Van Dusen,” he said, 44 he would simply be one of twenty boys. He would wait on himself, take his turn at the rough and dirty work, and enjoy precisely the same consideration, no more, that every other lad received. I should watch to see that he did

WILLIE VOLUNTEERED 19 not attempt any exercise or sport that was beyond his strength; but contact with fellows who are older, stronger and w T iser would be an important part of his training, and his standing in the party would be such as he won by his own manly qualities/’

It was straight talk, but Captain Jack meant that it should be so. The Van Dusens, father and son, were probably saturated with the pride of their money, and they must begin by learning that, with the Lorimer crowd, money didn’t count.

Van Dusen himself took it better than Jack had expected. He bristled a little at first, but as his eye roved from his own boy to Lorimer, he calmed down and grew thoughtful.

“ Can you make him as — as strong, symmetrical and well set-up as yourself? ” the father asked.

“ Undoubtedly — if there is no organic weakness.”

14 Say, when are you going camping out? ” the boy interrupted.

“ In about a week, perhaps. I shall go into the country — to a place called Four Comers — to try to make arrangements, to-morrow.”

“ Can I go with you and see the place? ”

The boy frowned and looked as if he was on the point of flying into a rage. But Lorimer caught his eye and held it steadily, and he thought better of it.

“ How much will the camping trip cost? ” the father inquired.

“ Railroad fares included, probably seven or eight dollars a week.”

“ And how much am I to pay for your services?”

“ Nothing, until I decide whether to undertake the care of your son. If you will send him down to our gym at, say, 7 o’clock to-morrow morning, our director, Mr. Mains, and I will give him a thorough going-over and form an idea of what he needs.”

“ But Willie seldom gets up before 9! ” Van Dusen objected.

“ Willie will have to learn to get up! ” Captain Jack said firmly.

“ Why, of course I’ll get up! I’ll be there! ” the boy himself added. That was a good sign, and Lorimer felt more friendly. He smiled as he rose to go.

“ All right, then, Will, I’ll see you to-morrow morning, and put you through a course of sprouts,” he said. “You can be strong if you’re willing to work for it and live rightly, but I want you — and your father — to remember that nobody can help you unless you try to help yourself! ”

With that Lorimer made his escape, literally

WILLIE VOLUNTEERED 21 so, for the boy wanted to keep him ; and, smiling over this odd interview, hurried down to the gym.

He did not look forward with any great enthusiasm to the task of training young Van Dusen. The money it might fairly be worth — and he was resolved not to take any more — would hardly compensate for the annoyances involved in trying to keep his pupil straight in the midst of an idle, self-indulgent household. But, only a little wdiile before, he had been telling Terry McGrady that they ought to “ catch ’em younger ” — pay more attention to the small boys and see that they were started right — and how could he consistently decline this opportunity?